Toys for a Jedi
by Balin Lord of Moria
Summary: A frame story telling about Ganodi taking a stroll through F.A.O. Schwarz in New York and making out like a bandit with the toys she loves. Warning: Ganodi cuteness!
1. The Big Piano

**A/N:** This short story is a tie-in to my fan fiction, **Young Jedi, Lost in New York!** It puts a greater emphasis on the adventures of Ganodi in F.A.O. Schwarz in New York City. I recommend you read at least the first three chapters of the fan fiction before reading this, but this story can also be seen as a stand-alone story that takes place in the real world.

* * *

During her time in exploring New York City, little Ganodi, a Rodian Jedi youngling, was very eager to check out the old, giant toy store called F.A.O. Schwarz. When she got there, she was amazed at how large the place looked from the outside. There were a couple of human men dressed up as British soldiers "guarding" the entrance, but she didn't know that's what the costumes were. All she thought was that there were some very professional looking men with guns at the store's entrance that reminded her of the clone troopers of the Republic. She grinned at one of them, and got a puzzled look from him in return. Realizing he wasn't sure what she was, Ganodi decided just to walk inside.

Her big, starry eyes widened even more than they already were when she saw the interior of the store. There were all kinds of toys and related items everywhere to be seen, and the different sections that had different themed toys each had their own decorative appearance that presumably applied to that theme. No two sections looked exactly alike, and neither did any two sets of shelves. Ganodi just stood there and gaped, feeling like she had just entered some kind of kiddie heaven.

Ganodi couldn't decide what to look at first, but she noticed some shopping carts nearby, and took one of them for herself. Then, she overheard some other kids nearby saying to their mothers, "Mom, can I play on the Big Piano?" "Mommy, can I please play on the Piano, just once?" "I promise I'll be good if you let me play on it." Most of the mothers and fathers consented to letting their children go to play on this contraption they were talking about.

Ganodi wondered what the Big Piano could be. Obviously, it was some kind of keyboard, but she also wondered if she could play on it, despite being there without an adult supervisor. There were an elevator and an escalator going up to a second floor. Most of the people took the escalator, but Ganodi elected for the elevator, due to her having a big shopping cart.

At the top, she soon found what they were talking about. The Big Piano sure was _big_. It was many yards long, and the keys were large enough to step on, which was exactly what the boys and girls playing it were doing. Each key made a slightly different electronic sound when it was stepped on, and while some of the kids were just making enjoyable noise on the thing, other kids were actually trying to play songs on the Piano.

Ganodi was itching to play on it herself, because it looked _so fun_. In fact, she suddenly realized that she was racing over to the keyboard already, so eager to make music on such a big toy. They never had fun like this in the Jedi Temple, or in any other known part of Coruscant. She put her shopping cart on the side and dived into the Big Piano.

"Hey, wait a minute!" someone shouted. _Uh-oh_, thought Ganodi. _Now I've stirred up trouble. Why does this always happen to me?_ A man who worked in the store walked up to her. She was afraid he was going to toss her out for looking alien, but all he said was, "Did you miss the sign, kid? No shoes or boots are allowed on the Big Piano's keys."

_Oh,_ she thought. _In that case, I'll take them off until I'm finished._ She slipped off her boots and put them aside, standing in her bare Rodian feet. Some of the people stared. Then Ganodi proceeded to play a little jig of her own on the keys, hopping from key to key with skill. Of course, the Force had something to do with it, too. With the Force as her ally, she could play lots of songs perfectly.

She hopped and danced on the keyboard, getting lost in the moment, in the here and now, as some Jedi Masters, including the late Qui-Gon Jinn (who lived and died before her time), often advised younger Jedi to do. She even found herself starting to sing to her tune. Soon, the other kids had stopped their own playing to watch her. In her excitement, Ganodi eventually struck off into another theme, the Coruscant anthem. Of course, nobody there recognized it, but they seemed to know something she didn't, because they were starting to applaud her antics and her song. Delighted by the attention she was receiving, Ganodi soon reached a triumphant crescendo, and did a slide down from one end of the Big Piano to the other.

There was applause from virtually everyone there. The kids were shouting, "Play it again, little alien girl! Play it again, Greedo girl!"

Ganodi found it a little insulting to be referred to as Greedo, which was the name of an infamous Rodian bounty hunter. Nevertheless, she was honored by their praise, and played again a couple more times, until she got tired.

* * *

**A/N:** This fanfic has more chapters to come. Like I said, they're an extended version of a scene from my younglings in New York story, but they can also be seen as a separate story all its own.


	2. The Toys

When she was finally finished at the Big Piano, Ganodi took back her shopping cart and began her tour of F.A.O. Schwarz.

Throughout the place as a whole, Ganodi had never seen such a selection of toys and other children's items. She hadn't even heard of any such big and prosperous toyshops on Coruscant, or her home world of Rodia either, for that matter. She almost got dizzy checking out all the signs and the layout of F.A.O. Schwarz.

Many of the toys applied primarily to boys, while some were better fit for girls, but quite a lot of them were appropriate for both genders. She found a section full of toys of superheroes known as The Avengers, heroes who fought for the American Way with mysterious superpowers. The Avengers' toys included a some sort of video disks called DVDs that showed animated Avengers, a Captain America Flying Shield, a water slide, and a few action figures of Captain America and Hulk.

"Oh, what the hay," Ganodi thought to herself, "I've got lots of money, though I still don't know where it came from, so I can buy pretty much what I like with it. I think I'll take that flying shield and inflatable water slide. They're not too expensive, and maybe the shield can help me fight better with my lightsaber, too."

She continued to browse the store, passing by many areas that looked quite tempting, but she didn't want to _really_ overdo it with how many she got. In a part of the store where there were children's puzzles, she picked up a few little puzzles: a glow-in-the-dark Undersea Glow – Great White Shark puzzle, a globe of Earth, a Kanoodle Solitaire game, a City of Las Vegas 4D puzzle, and a City of New York 4D puzzle. "I'd love to see how New York and Las Vegas look in four dimensions, and I bet Zatt would, too."

Sitting on the floor, using a touch of Force cloak to prevent anyone from stealing her cart full of purchases, Ganodi sat on the floor and examined her Kanoodle puzzle. She would have to connect colored beads to complete tricky and twisted puzzles in both 2D and 3D format. "Wow! Katooni ought to try this, too," she said to herself.

That was also the day that a Jedi youngling first discovered LEGO and Playmobil. It was also the first day she fell in love with them, especially LEGO. When she got to the LEGO section, which was one of the larger single sections, and fiddled around a bit with some loose LEGO bricks left out on display for curious kids to use, it was her belief that if she had enough of these, she could make a model of Galactic City, Coruscant. She would be picking up several of those that day. Ganodi started with some Playmobil construction sets of policemen and their cars and boats. More of the same included a LEGO Simpsons' House set (she thought the characters looked so funny), and some LEGO City products of many kinds, ranging from cement mixers and tanker trucks to a LEGO City Police backpack.

Ganodi also passed a part of the store that had creepy-looking toys meant to pretend to scare people. Those toys that showed fake finger razors and a man with a burned face and a gleeful expression on it especially got to her. She had enough problems dealing with her fear of the many challenges ahead of her in her journey as a Jedi, and she didn't need some cheap horror toys giving her unnecessary nightmares. Why, even the theme of the toys was creepy: _"A Nightmare on Elm Street." _She shuddered and was on her way.

In contrast, Ganodi thought that some other toys were adorably cute. She almost cooed at some puffy-faced baby dolls called the "Cabbage Patch Kids," but remembered not to draw too much attention to herself, because not everyone in F.A.O. Schwarz was likely to be as welcoming of her. There were also some pretty little dolls and figures of some glamorous little beasts of burden called "My Little Pony." The fashion style ponies looked cuddly and soft, but Jedi weren't supposed to concern themselves with vanity, so she took some Glimmer Wings figures, such as Rarity, Ploomette, Daisy Dream, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy.

What she was about to find out, however, was that the next theme of toys was totally going to blow her mind away.


	3. Star Wars

Ganodi moved on to a large section of the store, and the toys she saw there made her stare wide-eyed again, with her heart racing in excitement. These toys were of people, vehicles and vessels, weapons, and even droids from her own galaxy! Everywhere, there were toys of droids like her little pal R2-D2, a golden protocol droid named C-3PO, a Wookiee hero named Chewbacca, various vehicles of war, soldiers like clone troopers and similar-looking stormtroopers, a strange-looking Sith Lord named Darth Vader whom she didn't remember from her Jedi history classes, and a variety of human heroes that she was also not familiar with, like Luke Skywalker (possibly a relation of Anakin), Princess Leia Organa (maybe a daughter of Senator Bail Organa), and smuggler Han Solo. Each and every one of these toys was labeled with the theme, _"Star Wars."_

Needless to say, Ganodi couldn't imagine how these humans on this backwater world could have seen or heard of anybody from her own galaxy. The Force told her that this planet was in a galaxy far, far away from her own, and from farther in the future, too. At the same time, though, she knew that this was an opportunity too good to pass up. She _had_ to get some of these toys to go with the others she got, so she could show other people from her galaxy that the people of Earth and New York enjoyed their adventures, too.

She took a careful look among all the toys present. There were some awesome-looking plastic figures of the Star Wars heroes called Playskool Heroes. She got pairs of figures like Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan and Commander Cody, R2-D2 and C-3PO, and Yoda and the mysterious Luke Skywalker, thinking that Anakin might find the last one pretty interesting. She also found a toy that made her laugh. It was another Mr. Potato Head toy, but it looked like Vader, and it was called Darth Tater! "This one's so funny! I gotta have it!" she said, and took one of them and put it in the cart. There were even two books there that fascinated her. They were part of a series called DK, and they were written in a very child-friendly way _and_ fully illustrated. They were called "Who are the Jedi?" And "What is a Sith Warrior?" Ganodi was sure that they could make learning about the Jedi and the Sith a lot more fun. When she made it back to her own galaxy, maybe these books could be reproduced in holobook format and distributed among the Jedi, she thought.

There were also a lot of LEGO Star Wars toys there. Ganodi selected a couple of little LEGO sets called, "Clone Troopers vs Droidekas," and "Republic Troopers vs Sith Troopers." She was eager to play with Clone Wars figures, and it excited her to have an opportunity to play the Jedi-loyal Republic troopers of the Old Republic against the faceless Sith troopers of the Sith Empire. She never thought she'd see the day. She also took a bigger LEGO set called the "Z-95 Headhunter," a starfighter that fought for the Republic in times of war. Ganodi was a born Jedi Ace and pilot, and it would occupy her free time to build her own simple LEGO model of a starfighter. To round off the LEGO Star Wars toys, she chose two cute items: a LEGO figure clock shaped and painted like Master Yoda himself, and a LEGO R2-D2 watch for her wrist. It would make a good chrono, she reasoned.

She was surprised to find that there were even some toys labeled "Angry Birds Star Wars." They apparently consisted of good characters looking like angry, puffed-out birds and bad characters looking like cocky, puffed-out pigs. Deciding that she had to get some of them, too, she got three ABSW plush toys, one of a Vader pig, one of a stormtrooper pig, and one of a Princess Leia bird. There was also a book called the Angry Birds Star Wars Character Encyclopedia for sale. It had cute pictures and descriptions of people from her galaxy in the form of fat birds, rounded pigs, and eggs.

"Hey, little Rodian," said a girl of about ten or eleven years, "I don't know where you came from, but that's a really cool character encyclopedia. In fact, I think it's the best of the _Star Wars_ character encyclopedias. Angry Birds Star Wars is a hit game, and some kids who collect this book like to use their imagination to dream of adventures with these characters. I highly recommend it, although I think you already have plenty in your shopping cart."

Ganodi liked this kid right off the bat. "Thanks, kid," she said, "I love using my imagination! I'll get this book! Wait, there are other character encyclopedias here for _Star Wars?_"

"I don't any of them are in stock right now," said the girl, "You'll have to go somewhere else to find them, like a bookstore, or something."

"Oh, well, thanks anyway!" said Ganodi, waving as she moved down the aisle.

"Any time, little Greedo!" the girl replied. Her startled mother pulled her away.

Ganodi squinted at the second use of the name Greedo to refer to her. _Is Greedo the only Rodian these humans have ever heard of?_

Finally, she got an inexpensive child's costume of an ARF trooper. In spite of being female, she thought it might be fun to pretend to be a miniature clone trooper sometimes.

There was still a little room in the cart, so she decided to search the store a little more.


End file.
